


only you, radiantly colorful

by wisdom_was_here



Category: West Side Story (1961)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Implied Smut, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, implied possibly underage, soulmates can see color
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:21:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29491239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdom_was_here/pseuds/wisdom_was_here
Summary: Soulmate AU based on a prompt where the characters can see colors once they meet their soulmate.  Tony and Maria fall in love and the world bursts into beautiful colors, but will it last?
Relationships: Maria/Tony (West Side Story)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 4





	1. I just met a girl named Maria

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a soulmate AU prompt given by my best friend, @the_real_las.: "i read this amazing one where the world is black and white until you meet your soulmate and then you see color. but like no one believes it, and only a few people actually meet their soulmate and almost no one believes the main character. it was like his grandmother told him about it, and how she used to see color until her husband died, and then it went back to black and white, and almost no one believed him about the colors except his best friend."
> 
> I tweaked it a bit to fit West Side Story and I'm loving it so far! Hope you enjoy!  
> <3 roni

Maria woke up that morning excited for the dance that night. She lay in bed for a few minutes, imagining the dance in the black-and-white world she had lived in all her life. She mused about what it could possibly look like in color. Anita spoke of a colored world with so much enthusiasm. She and Bernardo had been living in color since they had met in middle school when Maria’s family moved to America. None of her other friends had experienced color, and most of them thought they never would. Maria still held out hope that she could meet her soulmate one day, however.

Anita had picked out a beautifully colored fabric for the dress she was making Maria for that night’s dance. Maria wouldn’t know, but Anita said it looked fantastic on her, a lovely white glowing against her skin, with a red sash. She didn’t know what red looked like, but she imagined it was vibrant and bright and possessed all the fire she hoped to embody. 

At the dress shop, the young women got ready for the dance. Bernardo walked in and dropped his jaw on the floor looking at Anita. He complimented how good the dress looked on her, and how the colors complemented her eyes. Turning his attention to Maria, he echoed Anita’s earlier thoughts about how nice her dress looked on her. Maria could tell it fit well, and she loved the twirly skirt, but she wished that she could see how it looked in color. Oh, how she wished!

Bernardo and Anita flirted the whole walk to the gym where the dance was held. Her hand in Chino’s arm, she talked quietly with him. He was a nice young man, but as she had said to Anita before, “When I look at Chino, nothing happens. Something should happen!”

They entered the doors of the gym, greeting friends here and there. Maria was introduced to Bernardo and Anita’s friends.

“My sister, Maria.”

“Mucho gusto!”

“Igualmente!”

Some of them were dating, others married, and a few could see in color and complimented her on her dress. 

“Rosalia!” she called to her friend.

“Hola, Maria! Como estas?”

“Oh, muy, muy bien. Y tu?”

They talked and laughed for a few minutes, catching up and sharing plans for the night, before they were whirled away onto the dance floor by their respective dates.

Chino disappeared to get a drink after the quick-moving Mambo competition, and Maria was left alone. Everybody else was slow dancing, and nobody noticed Maria on the dance floor. That is, except for a young man who had just entered the building, clapping Riff, leader of the Jets, on the shoulder before stepping on to the dance floor. He walked a few paces towards her, still tossing words behind him to his best friend, but then he turned his head towards her and met her eyes. 

It was like the world was on fire. The lights—the lights! They weren’t just bright. No, they were all sorts of…colors! They glowed and bounced and shone on everything in a way she'd never been able to imagine.

She looked down at herself. It was true. The—she supposed it was white—of her dress glowed against her coffee-colored skin, and the— red! —sash was exactly the beautiful, fiery color she had hoped it was! And…

The beautiful young man who met her eyes seemed just as amazed as she was at the explosion of color the world had suddenly become. He took in her slim figure clad in the white and red dress and smiled with appreciation of her fine-boned Puerto Rican beauty. She stepped closer to him, and he continued to close the distance between them. She reached up a hand to his tanned face, which was so handsome. His dark brown eyes, so like hers, glowed with an inner light that was so beautiful. He gazed at her in wonder.

“Is this a joke?” he asked, almost reverently, not believing his words even as he said them. 

“I have not yet learned to joke that way,” she replied, understanding the awe and amazement he clearly felt. 

“You can see color too? Everything is radiant. So radiant. And you’re—radiantly beautiful.”

“Everything is painted in shades of color I could only imagine. This is the perfect way to see you for the first time. You, my…”

“Soulmate?” Tony asked tentatively. 

“Si. Alma gemela, soulmate.”

Holding her eyes in his deep gaze, Tony raised his arms and began to dance, joining the other couples in their choreography. Maria followed, and they danced closer and closer, she looking up into his handsome face, framed by dark curly hair so like her own. 

Couples stilled around them, and they paused, eyes only for each other, seeing in full color the face of the most important person in their respective lives. 

Right before their lips met, Tony whispered, “If there was any other way to start seeing color, I wouldn’t want it without the miracle of your face, first and always.”

“Tu es milagro,” Maria echoed, and their lips met in a kiss, sweet and tender.

The lights flared, and Bernardo sped to her side, pulling her from Tony with a cry of outrage. “Get away from my sister, Jet!”

“Bernardo! He didn’t mean anything wrong!”

“Those boys only want one thing from girls like you, Maria. Take her home, Chino," he said through her cries of outrage. 

“C’mon, Tony, come dance with me and Graziella,” Riff echoed from where he had rushed to see what the commotion was about. 

Tony! Maria thought joyfully, despite being walked off the dance floor, barely looking where she was going as she looked for Tony's stricken face. Now I have a name for that wonderful face.

Tony just gazed desperately at Maria, eyes wide, as Riff pulled him away through the crowd. But in his mind her name played over and over. Maria. Maria! I just met a girl named Maria, and suddenly that name will never mean the same to me…


	2. See Only Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That famous balcony scene..."Hark, what light from yonder window breaks? Tis the east, and Maria is the sun!"

Later that night, Tony got the general street that Bernardo and Maria’s flat was on from Anybodys, slipping her a cigar in exchange for her silence. Walking carefully through the Puerto Rican neighborhood, avoiding small groups of Sharks as he went, he found the street. He ran down it, calling her name softly.

“Maria! Maria!”

There she was! She slipped out of the window onto the fire escape, wearing a modest yet beautiful nightgown. She was even more radiant in the moonlight, the lavender of her nightgown kissing her glowing skin.

She gazed down at him with joy. “Tony! You came! What on earth are you doing here?"

"I had to see you!"

"You cannot! It is too dangerous!"

"I'll only stay for a few minutes, then."

"No, that is too short," she said shyly.

"An hour, then!"

"That is too long!" she cried, but it was clear she wanted him to stay even longer.

"I'll compromise. Make it forever!"

She laughed, and he grinned at her and came up, swinging his tall body onto the fire escape. 

He fell into her arms, holding her so tightly, she thought he’d never let go. "Maria, my dear soulmate! The moonlight looks a thousand times more beautiful in color, and a million times more beautiful on you."

Maria blushed. "Oh Tony! You speak so beautifully!"

Maria’s father interrupted. “Maruca! Es tarde!”

“Si, Papa! Un momento!"

“Maruca. I like it,” said Tony. 

She laughed. “His pet name for me. Tony, you cannot stay. If Bernardo finds out—”

“He won’t find out. I’m not one of them, Maria.”

“But you are not one of us either.” She gazed at him sadly. He was so handsome, a strong jaw, tanned face, beautiful blue eyes, all accentuated by his yellow jacket. Now that she could see him in color, she couldn’t imagine him in the drab black-and-white world she used to live in. 

“Oh, Tony. Forget what our families will think. I see you, only you. You’re everything I see, forever.”

“Beautiful Maria, see only me.”


End file.
